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At 60,000 acres, the Matador, which The Nature Conservancy has owned since 2000, is the largest private ranch in the region. [Montana]

the Conservancy is working with its ranching neighbors to operate a grass bank

Some folks, Veseth says, are still sore over the creation of the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge along the Missouri River in the 1970s. The designation of the nearby Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument in 2001 also rankled some ranchers, who feared that they would be shut out of grazing rights on public land, an important component in running an economically viable grazing operation. The legal push by several environmental groups to protect the sage grouse under the Endangered Species Act raises plenty of hackles

Working from a model established in the 1990s on a former Conservancy property in southern New Mexico and Arizona, the organization has established a grass bank on the Matador.

Here’s how it works. The Matador has a lot of grass but no cattle. The neighboring ranchers have a lot of cattle but not always enough grass to last the year. If ranchers commit to adjusting the way they manage their own properties, the Conservancy gives them a substantial break on the cost of grazing leases at the Matador.

http://web.archive.org/web/20141230042352/http://magazine.nature.org/features/ranching-rebooted.xml

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The Nature Conservancy has struck a deal to preserve the historic 60,000-acre Matador Ranch in north-central Montana, described as one of the last and largest mixed-grass prairie landscapes in North America.

The deal includes a Nature Conservancy purchase of 14,400 acres and purchase of 16,600 acres by Roundup cattle rancher Ned Tranel. The remainder of the ranch is government land under lease.

In the complex agreement signed last week, the Conservancy bought the 31,000 acres of deeded land

After attaching a perpetual conservation easement that forbids development and subdivision, the Conservancy immediately sold 16,600 acres to Tranel, who will graze cattle on his portion and lease grazing rights on the Conservancy’s portion.

Tranel also will maintain the Matador’s leases on the adjacent 29,000 acres of state and Bureau of Land Management land.

The Nature Conservancy had wanted the property since it was put up for sale in the summer of 1998, but it couldn’t afford to buy all 31,000 acres.

http://www.djc.com/news/enviro/11003051.html?id=11003051&printmode=true

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Half of Matador Ranch is on state and BLM land and ranchers can pay the Nature Conservancy to graze cattle there.